


You Inspire Everyone

by MomoMoon115



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Confessions, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Serious
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-25
Updated: 2015-05-25
Packaged: 2018-04-01 03:59:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4005070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MomoMoon115/pseuds/MomoMoon115
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Len and Barry have a serious talk. Len decides to tell Barry how they met the very first time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Inspire Everyone

**Author's Note:**

> So, there's some serious talk in this one. If you feel I need to tag something then feel free to tell me, and I'll add it. ^_^

“Why’d you decide to become a criminal, Len?” Barry asked as he laid in bed next to him. 

They’d been cuddling and watching TV after. Len had wanted some quiet time together after a quick after sex shower. Which led them to their current position where Barry laid on his side and was tracing circles on Len’s pecs while Len had an arm around him with his thumb circling the pulse point at Barry’s neck. 

“It wasn’t...a decision to become, per say. It was more like a decision for survival.” Len replied carefully. “It ended up evolving into more of an adrenaline rush.” 

“Would you mind telling me about it?” Barry asked as he looked up at Len’s face. 

Len gave Barry a calculating stare before nodding. He kissed the edge of Barry’s hair as he moved his hand to push Barry’s head under his chin. Barry followed his cue and buried his head into Len’s shoulder. 

“My dad was a cop. My mom was a homemaker. Our family was fine for the first quarter or so after I was born, but eventually my mother found out my dad was having an affair. I think..it was some woman at a bar he frequented with the other cops in his unit. But, after my mom found out, she left him, and I was left with him. I was maybe 8 at that time. 

Soon after that the other woman moved in. She was nice enough. I guess. Nothing really went wrong. I went to school and I came home. About 2 years later, she got pregnant and I had Lisa as a sister. But that’s when things changed. Lisa’s mother died in childbirth, and my... father was so devastated that he took it out on me. 

As Lisa got older, it because Lisa and me. I tried to protect her as much as I could I mean we may have been half siblings but she was still my sister. My dad was reported so many times to the police, but being a police officer himself, he always got out of it. Cop’s word after all.” Len paused as his fingers pressed tightly into Barry’s skin. 

He felt Barry placing a hand on his and he loosened his grip. 

“I ended up raising my sister, but I was working so much that my grades began dropping. With that went my work permit and then we had nothing. I dropped out of school when I was 17. Lisa was 8. She’d just started the second grade. It was...hard. having an abusive father and having to take care of a young child at the same time. But I wanted my sister to have a decent life. I wanted to give her that at least.

So, I started stealing, small things at first like food and little trinkets for Lisa. But my father’s beatings got worse, he became a drunk, and then I was the one that had to pay for everything in order to stay in the house we lived in. Because of that I got into other crimes. At first it was petty crimes, but the it evolved into drugs and smuggling, then robbing. I ended up leaving soon after that. I left Lisa. I left my childhood home, and I turned to a life of crime. The worst part of it was that I liked it. I never expected to be in so deep when I started. I mean it was just a way to get quick cash! But, I couldn’t stop. I loved the control. Maybe a shrink or something would tell me it had something to do with my childhood, but I couldn’t care less. it was such a rush and I wanted more. 

"But you've said you don't do drugs, ever?" Barry asked in question 

"It was once and I was incredibly desperate." Len replied shamefully. "Dropped out of that right away." 

As I grew older, I was able to get more money from these heists, and was able to put Lisa through figure skating lessons. She’d wanted to become an Olympic figure skater, but an accident in high school ended that dream, forever. She was devastated.

Dad was eventually sent to jail after he’d used up all his favors and cards. Lisa and I took what little we had and we left. we moved into a studio in the Central City projects. Lisa continued with school and did odd jobs to get some extra money while I continued planning heists. She eventually found her way into the business alongside me and we’ve worked on and off together since.” Len finished. 

“Thank you for telling me.” Barry said as he patted Len’s chest in comfort. He leaned up to kiss the bottom of the man’s chin before moving back to his spot with a sigh. 

“There is one more thing I’ve been meaning to tell you though.” Len sighed after a few seconds. 

Barry sat up a bit. “Oh yeah?” 

“Yeah. I just didn’t know how you’d take it. It’s been bothering me for a while.” Len unwrapped himself from Barry and sat up.

“Is it really that bad?” Barry asked, biting his lip. 

“It may or may not be? It really depends on your reaction.” Len replied. 

Barry moved to straddle Len. He cupped both his cheeks in his hands before pushing forward to leave a soft kiss on Len’s lips. 

Len cupped his left hand over Barry’s as he kissed back. Barry pulled away first. 

“You can tell me anything, Len. I trust you.” Barry said as he kissed Len’s knuckles. He got off Len and sat next to him. Head leaning on Len’s shoulder.

Len searched Barry’s eyes before nodding. “Okay.” 

“There was an event, about 15 years ago.” Len started. 

Barry calculated his age in his head. He was 11 years old. “Go on.” 

“I was about 28? I had just finished a relatively easy heist and was heading home. It was literally the middle of the night, and I was alone. I was walking down the street when there was this loud sound and a sudden flash in front of my eyes. I was so surprised, but i couldn’t figure out what it was. I thought it’d been my imagination. But, there was this kid across the street from. A kid I knew hadn’t been there before. 

He was looking around in confusion, like he had no idea where he was and how he’d gotten there. He’d spotted me and ran across the street. This kid no older than 10 or 11 was out at night and barefoot. It may have been my long years having taken care of Lisa, but I literally thought this kid was crazy. My first thought was that he’d get pneumonia being out in the cold this late at night. 

He asked me almost begged me for help. This random kid I didn’t know was begging me to help him get home. So i figured what the hell. I could probably get some money from this poor sap of a kid you know? Get him home. Steal some stuff inconspicuously. So I said I could help him and he rattled off his address. I took his hand and I walked down the street to the address. It was about 15 blocks away, so I wondered how this kid managed to get so far away from home and not notice. 

It took almost half an hour, but as we got to the the street this kid lived on, we noticed police lights everywhere. I immediately moved to cover my face as best as possible, but the kid pulled his hand out of mine and ran straight for them. 

He was yelling for his dad. His dad that was being pulled away and pushed into a cop car in handcuffs. People were yelling after this kid, glad that he was okay. I ended up hiding from the scene behind a tree as the crowd dispersed and neighbors tried getting answers. I heard a few relieved women speaking about how the kid was okay. They’d thought he’d been kidnapped or even killed himself. 

They were glad that...Barry, was okay.” 

Barry’s eyes widened. “It was you.” he whispered almost inaudibly. 

“It was you who helped me? I remember a man helping me then. Joe- Joe had asked me how I’d gotten back. They thought I’d been killed somewhere else. But when I tried to find you. You were gone.”

Len nodded. He ran a hand through his short hair. “Here’s,” he cleared his throat. “There’s more.” 

“The few days after that we’d gotten the paper. ‘Local Doctor Murder’s Wife’, Nora Allen Murdered’, Child, Barry Allen, Taken in as a Ward to Joe West’. There were stories all over the place. And while the media kept up with the trial and convictions, I couldn’t help but wonder what would happen to you. It initially lasted just a few days after your father was put in Iron Heights. But then it became months. I told Lisa about my thoughts, but she just thought I was being a creepy pedophile about it. After a while, I began to doubt myself. I berated myself for constantly thinking of such an innocent 11 year old boy almost all the time.” 

Len stroked Barry’s face. 

“About a year later, I was caught for petty theft. I lost my focus thinking of this kid. What happened to him. There was a local newspaper at the store I held up. You’d won a local science fair. I don’t know why, but in that moment I felt so proud. A boy like you that came from a broken family was able to do something I wasn’t, and at such a young age.

I was sent to Iron Heights after the heist. Strangely enough I happened upon your dad.”

“You met my dad?” Barry asked. 

Leonard paused and looked at Barry. Len expected disgust to come from Barry. After all he’d been obsessing over a young child for almost 2 years straight. But he continued. 

“Yes, I did. He’s quite wise, and incredibly intelligent. I see where you get it from.” Len replied.

Barry smiled softly.

“We talked that whole day. He talked about you a lot, and that was when I was glad to hear about you. To find out that you were doing well, and that this man was so incredibly proud of his son. I realized then that this man couldn’t have possibly murdered his wife. That he’d been wronged.”

“So you believed him?” Barry asked. 

“He didn’t have to tell me. As soon as he talked to me there was no reason to believe he’d killed his wife.

But after that, I was broken out by Mick for a job. I eventually forgot about you. I didn’t expect you to interfere with a heist I was making 12 years later. I thought you’d died. I read about you in the paper. That you’d been struck by lightning and was in a coma. I’d even visited you once at the hospital. Not up close, but through the window, and I realized I was still just as obsessed with you as I was then. 

It’d been years since I talked to your father, but I wanted had an itch to talk to him. I wanted to find out more about you. If you’d lived your life to the fullest or if you’d succumbed to the loss of your family.

Imagine my surprise when you looked so familiar under that Flash disguise. I didn’t kill you that night at the train because there was a familiarity there. I flashed back to that night. To those same big, brown, puppy dog eyes and lightly trembling lips. I didn’t know if it was you, but I wanted to find out. 

I kidnapped Cisco, got him to tell me the Flash’s true identity. Imagine my surprise when my suspicions were right. That the Flash was the Barry Allen I helped. The Barry Allen I’d been almost obsessed with for the past decade. I hadn’t realized that the obsession had turned into adoration and love when I became your nemesis. 

It- it took a lot for me to admit. Especially with our ages.” 

“So, that’s why your were hesitant?” Barry asked. 

“Yeah. I didn’t know what you’d think of me. Some old man pedophile pining after some kid.” 

Barry cupped Len’s cheek. “I don’t think you’re a pedophile, Len. You were curious. You wanted to know about me because you saw me in you. You saw what you could have been. What you might have been. If you thought about me sexually at that age then you would be a pedophile. But you didn’t did you?” 

“Of course not.” Len whispered. 

“Then what’s the problem? I confessed my feelings for you first. Don’t you remember?” Barry asked. “It took you so long to finally say those words to me.”

Len breathed shakily. Barry looked at the man worriedly when he saw his eyes growing wet. 

“You have no idea, how long I’ve been keeping this in Barry. How I’ve thought you’d react. I was so scared to lose you because. You’ve given me so much life. I’ve survived so long because of you, and you didn’t even know it.” Len said as he wiped at his eyes. 

“Len. I love you. Nothing you could ever do would change that.” Barry said, staring at Len intently. 

Len nodded as he tried to stop more tears from running down his face. Barry wiped them away with his thumb as he kissed Len lightly. 

“I- I love you,too, Barry.” Len said finally as Barry smiled.

Barry would later visit his father at Iron Heights. He didn’t know how to bring up Leonard, but he would finally tell his father that he was dating reformed criminal, Leonard Snart AKA Captain Cold. 

“Ahh, Leonard, smart boy he is.” his father said. “He’s sure to go far. Especially with someone like you to help him, Barry. After all, you always manage to help and inspire everyone around you.”


End file.
